Taking aim at minimum wage laws, union protections, and even local building codes, Herman Cain has put the finishing touches on the last missing piece of his signature 9-9-9 plan  an elaborate proposal to create opportunity zones in inner-city America that the GOP presidential candidate will unveil during a major campaign appearance in Detroit on Friday morning.

Cain hinted at the move during Tuesday nights GOP debate in Las Vegas. He and his aides hope the details they provide about their plans to encourage growth in impoverished areas will deflect the surge of recent criticism branding 9-9-9 as unfair to the poor.

But details about the opportunity zone proposal, as obtained in advance by Fox News, will likely make 9-9-9 more, not less, controversial, particularly with organized labor.

To qualify for zone status under Cains plan, a given jurisdiction will have to enact policies the unions consider anathema  such as the elimination of the minimum wage, the provision of school vouchers, or the declaration of a zone as a right-to-work area.

Leading figures in organized labor swiftly attacked the Cain proposal.

Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa told Fox News in an emailed statement: Herman Cains Opportunity Zones appear to be an opportunity for corporate America to exploit workers and turn the United States into a third-world country.

"It's tough to take anything like that seriously, snapped AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, who spoke to Fox News on the sidelines of a union event in Washington. Look, workers are working hard and their wages have stagnated. To have Herman Cain, a serious contender on the Republican side, make a statement like that  that he wants to further lower wages, he wants to do away with the minimum wage  it's almost laughable."

As late as Thursday afternoon, Cain&#8217;s campaign website made only a few broad references to &#8220;empowerment zones,&#8221; with specificity lacking. One late change the campaign made &#8211; with Cain&#8217;s expressed approval &#8211; was to switch from the term &#8220;empowerment zones&#8221; to &#8220;opportunity zones.&#8221; The Cain team decided the word &#8220;empowerment&#8221; is too closely associated with liberal politics.

The five-page document obtained by Fox News states that employers in the designated zones &#8220;will deduct for staff employed, subject to income limits within the zone. This will help new businesses which generally don&#8217;t generate profits in early years.&#8221;

Deductions will not be limited to new businesses or new jobs created, but &#8220;are designed to benefit all within the Zone,&#8221; the document continues. &#8220;Those living and working in the Zone will get a deduction.&#8221;

In a recent interview with Fox News, a top adviser who helped shape Cain&#8217;s campaign platform cited the opportunity zones as the prime vehicle by which the Cain White House would alleviate surging new tax burdens on the poor.

In inner cities, the adviser said, current policies impose an effective marginal tax rate of more than 70 percent on the poor.

&#8220;Taxes alone will not solve the problem,&#8221; the adviser said. &#8220;If the zones knock down barriers to growth, we will match that with incentives.&#8221;

Asked to provide examples of barriers to growth that a given jurisdiction could remove in order to qualify for &#8220;empowerment zone&#8221; status and the accompanying tax benefits, the adviser cited three. They include the elimination of minimum wage laws, which the Cain campaign believes &#8220;crush teen employment&#8221;; giving parents greater choice in where their children are schooled, a goal to be achieved principally, though not exclusively, through the issuance of vouchers; and the adoption of a &#8220;right to work&#8221; policy, which frees workers from the requirement to join a union in workplaces where a union has already formed.

This seems like a unfair plan when you think about that most empowerment zones=the inner-city, while most of the rest of the country are going to be taxed more. Sounds like bull shit to me. My card idea, I had last night was a better idea, which would give everyone below a certain level a "get out of sales tax" pass. But that is also a big government thing to.

This seems like a unfair plan when you think about that most empowerment zones=the inner-city, while most of the rest of the country are going to be taxed more. Sounds like bull shit to me. My card idea, I had last night was a better idea, which would give everyone below a certain level a "get out of sales tax" pass. But that is also a big government thing to.

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Yeesh. And people think marginal tax rates are disincentives to earn/create more wealth. At least in the progressive tax system, if you are making $90,000 a year, you only pay 28% on the last $6,399. And even then, it's only a jump from 25% to 28% that you paid on the dollars earned between #$34,501 and $83,600. If you had a card that got you out of sales tax when you made below a certain amount, you would get an automatic 9% cut in your tax if you didn't earn a certain amount of income and a 9% tax increase when you did. I think if I was on the borderline, there is no way I would work to earn enough money to take me over that point unless I could make a lot more money by doing so (enough to make up for my increased costs due to the sales tax and then a bit extra because increased pay usually means more work or more hours).

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